Fan Fiction

If anything, what kept them together was their brotherhood, more than the fight. The fight brought them together, that's true. When that was gone, they still had that connection, that love.

And THAT is the real victory......

Chapter 1 :: Chapter 2 :: Chapter 3 :: Chapter 4 :: Chapter 5 :: Chapter 6 :: Chapter 7 ::
Chapter 8 :: Chapter 9 :: Chapter 10 :: Chapter 11 :: Chapter 12 :: Chapter 13 :: Chapter 14 ::
Chapter 15 :: Chapter 16 :: Chapter 17 :: Chapter 18 :: Chapter 19 :: Chapter 20 :: Chapter 21

Sonny had a deep love-hate relationship with ambulances.  The slightest movement made his head feel like marbles rolling around in a frying pan.  After a few minutes of that he was puking up everything he’d eaten in days.  The crew were real nice to him and joked about what he’d had for breakfast, it didn’t make him feel any better.  The ER was just as miserable as every one he recalled.  At least he wasn’t shot, and all the while they were prepping him for x-rays, he prayed that whoever hit him hadn’t managed to fracture his skull.  After the skull series, they were nice enough to give him something for the nausea and killer headache.  Three stitches and dressings later they said he’d be there for the night.  He hadn’t been able to tell what happened to Castillo, he hadn’t been in the ambulance Sonny rode in on.  It was a nagging worry and once his head cleared enough to think, the first thing he asked about was the Lieutenant.  They just gave him the usual evasive reassurance.  

Regular Cops showed up for a statement as soon as he was in a room, nobody Sonny recognized.  Sonny had considered this as carefully as he could and stuck to the truth sparingly.  He was a temporary part of the Vice Unit sent to watch for an expected Drug deal.  He had decided to check the spotlight balconies because they seemed nice and concealed with a view of the entire auditorium.  He had just stuck his head out the door onto the balcony when the lights went out.  He supposed that Lieutenant Castillo had come onto the balcony after the shooter got his target and it had ended in a firefight when the Lieutenant tried to take the man prisoner.  He really wasn’t sure, but the Lieutenant seemed like that sort of guy...
        He dozed off even before they left the room.  The next thing he felt was someone taking his hand.  It was Gina.  She smiled at him and when his eyes opened without whirling nausea, he could see Trudy standing there as well.  Sonny smiled and mumbled, "We gotta stop meeting like this guys."

"Yeah, it’s getting old."

Rico showed up next.  One by one the others showed up
"Castillo?  Is he okay?"
"Yeah."  Gina smiled.
Switek grimaced a little. "We just tried to see him.  They're still stitching his arm up.  Broken ribs, a nasty flesh wound, and a light concussion."
Tubbs growled,
"That slob Menton shot him 4 times, the only thing that saved him was the body armor he was wearing."
That made Sonny's eyes widen.
"Dale Menton?"
"Yeah, that porky ex-Agency guy that ratted out Castillo in Thailand."
"What the Hell was Menton doing there?"  Sonny's head felt like it was stuffed with sticky cotton candy.
"They're saying Menton was hired to kill the Argentines."
Sonny had trouble focusing, there were pieces to this that just made no sense. Why had Reese been there?  "Where did he get the vest?"  Sonny felt like he'd fallen down a rabbit hole into a very strange reality.  It hit him suddenly that he'd last seen Castillo dressed in casual clothes from Chata's house, but on the balcony he was dressed in what looked like his invariable black and white.  How had that happened anyway?

"Good question."  Tubbs responded.  "I don't intend to ask it.  No sign of Reese anywhere.  It's like all the weird stuff never happened.  We don't even have any idea why someone would want to kill the Argentines.  At least it wasn't Castillo."
Arnie spoke up then.  "Word is that it was a paid political assassination.  But Those Feds haven't shown up."

"Yeah, they vanished like yesterday's hot news."  Switek continued.   "There was no sign of McKinnon when we went back to the OCB.  We've got the paperwork through to go after Emil's boat.  We found it's docking site.  We're going tomorrow morning.  Are you in?"

A nurse walked into the room as Sonny was trying to visualize getting out of the bed.  He HAD to go on this one, and he could hardly summon the energy to keep his eyes open.  He knew the nurse was going to run everyone off, so he quickly said, "You WILL pick me up in the morning.  Don't even think about going without me!"  Rico laughed as the gang trailed out of the room and the nurse prepared to check him over.

"See you in the morning."

Sonny didn't want to admit he was a little grateful when they left.  The days he had been in Miami felt like months and payment was overdue.  He was so tired it hurt.  He kept picking at the whole train of events that had happened since he got to Miami and still, there were bizarre gaps and inconsistencies.  The nurse checked him and somehow he was asleep before she left the room. 
        It was the voices that woke him, and he drifted for a while on the edge of consciousness.  Vaguely aware that he knew the voices, and there was a mild sense of urgency about this.
Crockett opened his eyes to dim light.  White room, funny smells, distant sounds, hospital.  Oh.  Yeah.  It took a second to remember.  The headache was background pain now.  Sonny felt as lethargic as a slug, it was delightful to just lie still.  It took a while for him to become conscious enough to be more then distantly interested in what the voices were saying, he heard the emotional content and it caught his attention.  The voice was was barely audible through the curtain around the other bed and held the sound of unshed tears, it was Dr. Friedman’s voice.  Only vaguely interested while drifting in his comfortable half awake state, he realized Castillo must have been moved into the other bed of the double room he occupied.  Moving his eyes hurt he discovered.  So the single glance that saw privacy curtains around the other bed was enough to make him suppress a moan and screw his eyes shut again.

"I wanted to forget everything.  I thought it was Jack.  When he was gone I thought it was over.  I never said anything to you about it because I wanted it to be over.  Did you know you were the one?"

Castillo's voice was a raspy whisper

"No.  Senji blocked my memories.  They told me that I left the hospital too soon.  Reese and Jack brought me back.  They said I was delirious for weeks from the injuries.  After that Reese began to change."

"I never understood until now."
"I believe he planned it with Senji."
"Senji would have called all this a waste."
"What else could we do?"

There was a pause, and Sonny felt himself beginning to drift back toward sleep.  There was a spot of words that he didn't catch and he sank back down into soft darkness.  Time had passed when he opened his eyes again.  Perhaps it was the unusual delight of feeling no pain.  As soon as he became aware of that, Sonny tried to hold still for fear the drums would resume pounding in his skull.  He had turned on his side and noticed that the curtain around Castillo’s bed was open now.  He could make out the dark head on the pillow.  He coughed and cleared his throat.

"Marty?  Are you awake?"  He winced at the inane question.
Then a soft breathless voice creaked.
"Yes Sonny."
The blond detective decided to simply ask and hope for answers.
  "Marty?  Do you remember me now?"
  "Yes.  I remember everything."
  "What happened?  Can you tell me?"

There was a long silence, so long that Sonny didn't think Castillo was going to answer.  But the raspy voice began to speak in slow halting sentences.

"Emil the Cowboy trained in the Camps in Nazi Germany.  His obsession was control by torture and conditioning.  He escaped to Argentina.  There are always people who will pay.  He roamed the world practicing his craft.  No one knows how many people died because of him."  There was a long pause and Sonny was sure it consisted of Castillo deciding what was acceptable to say.  "There were reasons we swore to a plan to destroy Emil, no matter the cost.  We knew it might take years to complete.  It's done."

Sonny listened to this with a sense of dread.  Finally he asked softly.  "When did you make this plan?"
And Castillo's voice was a sigh.  "A lifetime ago.  I was very young."

Somehow after that he lost track of things again.  The nurse moving around the bed woke him.  When Sonny's eyes opened to daylight streaming through the window.  Castillo was gone.  "Where is he?"  Sonny muttered.  The nurse glanced at the bed.  "He checked out this morning.  Dr. Friedman came for him."
That seemed strange to the detective, but perhaps no stranger than anything else that had happened.

8:00 AM, Dream Coast Hotel

The pervasive scent of incense mixed with the pleasant odor of beeswax filled the air.
        Layers of other scents he’d forgotten in a past life long ago boxed and labeled and stored away.  The simplicity of the space was comforting and made him draw a deep careful breath with a sense of utter relief.  The sound that robes make is quite individual to the knowing ear, some of the crispness of boiled cotton and the softness of the sound of linen. 

"His Holiness will see you now."

Martin Castillo followed the young monk through the suite of rooms.  Now on the edge of old age, with a simplicity of character that glowed like foxfire.  The Dalai Lama wore heavy square framed glasses.  His smile held great sincere sweetness.  Castillo smiled, it lit up his tired face like opening curtains on a window.  He bowed carefully mindful of the layers of bandage and stitching, hands together.

"Namaste, your Holiness."

"Namaste Martin!  It's been too many years."

"It has."

"And your Karma debts?" 

"Some are paid, some remain."

"I know you Martin, you spend your time trying to balance the scales.  How is this family you have now?  That is a part of balance, you must tell me about them.  We have time for tea."

8:30 AM Miami Dockside

When Sonny was released from the hospital.  His head still hurt and he could feel the stitches in his scalp pull every time he moved.  He kept starting to touch the area, bitter experience made him grimace every time he stopped himself.  Tubbs and Marco came to get him and they drove straight to the Docking address Trudy had produced.  They had formal impound papers and an agreement that the Coastguard was going to show up.  The Dockside was empty except for a car.
        A tall extremely thin Hispanic man with thinning shreds of grey hair and thick glasses stood alone on the dock watching the big ship disappearing.


        All three jumped out of the car.  Sonny winced, he knew better then to move quickly so soon.  His head beat a sudden throbbing warning, he paused while the others moved in on Izzy.  Sonny blinked and considered Izzy’s outfit.  The man wore rough heavily stained work clothes.  Sonny recognized deck oil stains.  A LOT of deck oil stains.  In fact, either Izzy had been pouring the stuff on his clothes or he had just finished putting deck oil on the Queen Mary.  Sonny compromised finally by rubbing his forehead as he approached.
"Izzy!  What the hell are you doing here?"
The skinny Latino turned and looked mildly at the three men.
"Sonny, Hey mang it's nice to see you.  How has your life been perambulating?  Pretty good I hope.”  Moreno turned back to look out to sea, he continued talking meditatively.
“you know, I've had a lot of different jobs in Miami."
Sonny rolled his eyes.  "Yeah.  I noticed"
"Well, a long time ago, I worked for a man who replenished boat decks, an woodworks."
"Refinished?"  The three men looked at each other with expressions of baffled suspicion.  Marco shrugged with raised eyebrows.
"We had a lot of finish oil to put on and we ran out of rags.  So I got some nice sponges, very cheap.  They worked okay, not so good as rags, but okay."

Tubbs was getting impatient,
"So?"
"Weell, you know a funny thing happened.  You remember that big fire at Sisco's Marina?"

Sonny's eyes widened, Both detectives mouths fell open as they looked at each other and stared goggle eyed at Izzy.
Tubbs stuttered.

"That was you?  That took out the warehouse and most of a boatyard dock!  What happened?"

Izzy shrugged defensively. 

“It’s just one of those incorrigible things.  You know?”
Those nice cheap sponges?  Just a tiny little bit of that finish stuff on them, and you leave them somewhere and some hors later they catch fire!  It's pretty strange.  We put the rags and sponges in a cans en put the lids on to keep the smell down you know, in a closet to be neat an tidy.  There was spontaneous consumption, yust like a bomb! and everything caught fire.  It was not my fault!  But I am not a fool.  I don't do deck work no more.  NEVER again!” 

Izzy waved his hand emphatically.  Then he shrugged again with a tiny sigh.

“Until last week.”
Izzy’s voice was mild and reflective.

“You know, it's hard to find those sponges anymore, I had to look all over Miami to get enough for this job.
Rico and Sonny looked at each other wide eyed.  Sonny felt like a fish out of water for a moment, he opened his mouth several times before swallowing and asking hesitantly,

"Huh, just who's boat were you working on?"

"Ohh, a big one.  Some rich foreigner, very inclusive, just lives on a big boat does his business there.  He doesn't keep a numerous crew, so they really needed a good refinish job.  We worked three days, dawn to dark.  There were spots all over that boat that needed a lot of work.  But you know we just could not get back to finish and get paid.  So all our sponges and oil stain is still there.  It's really too bad.  I could use the money, but some peoples money, you don't really need."  All the while Izzy had been looking out to sea.  "Hey look there.  What is that?  It sorta looks like smoke, a lot of smoke."  A pillor of dark smoke had risen above the horizon.

OCB Offices, Miami

It was probably supposed to be a working day.  But somehow not a lot had even begun to get done.  They were all still talking quietly, going over the last two weeks.  The Lieutenant was back.  Moving a little carefully, but he'd walked into his office and looked at the heaped chaos on his normally immaculate desk and simply sat down and begun to reduce it.  An hour later he called everyone into his office, face impassive, he studied all of them for a long pause before speaking.

"I have a question about this case you have all been working on."  They all looked nervous. "I believe the Rio Dezipas case has been fully resolved?"  Marco chirped briskly.
"Yes Lieutenant it has."
"Good”  With that he pushed the enormous file off his desk into a waste can."
Looking up at them, his eyes softened faintly and there was the hint of a twisted smile.
"You all did exceptional work on the case.  Thank you."

When the Lieutenant said you'd done exceptional work.  You'd just won the lottery.

"Sonny, Rico."  Crockett and Tubbs turned and looked down at the older man.  They were both smiling.

"Thank you for coming back."
Castillo nodded, quoting his senior detective verbatim: "You said, 'We're a team.' You said, 'Nobody can change that.'"

OCB Conference room.

This time there were hugs and kisses, they were all standing in the conference room when Arnie mentioned, "I guess they called Mckininin back, he wasn't here this morning at all."  Switek's comment was "Good."

Marco spoke up.  "The really creepy part is that all the odd pieces are just being swept off the board.  Reese disapeared.  Emil disppeared, his boat sank with no survivors, or at least if anyone abandoned ship, they made off at high speed in small boats."

"I don't think we'll ever know the real story behind any of this."  Tubbs frowned.  Sonny answered with a tired grin.

"That's okay.  We're all in one piece and my time here is over."

A tall thin man with very short curling brown hair and wire-rim glasses entered the OCB with a folder in hand.  He looked around and then approached the Conference room.

"I'm Mel McKinnin, I just got back from vacation and found an order for me to take Lt. Castillo's place while he's away?"

He was startled by the looks the group gave him.

Chapter 1 :: Chapter 2 :: Chapter 3 :: Chapter 4 :: Chapter 5 :: Chapter 6 :: Chapter 7 ::
Chapter 8 :: Chapter 9 :: Chapter 10 :: Chapter 11 :: Chapter 12 :: Chapter 13 :: Chapter 14 ::
Chapter 15 :: Chapter 16 :: Chapter 17 :: Chapter 18 :: Chapter 19 :: Chapter 20 :: Chapter 21